The primordial curvature perturbation in the ekpyrotic Universe

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  • 14 June 2001
Abstract
In the ekpyrotic scenario the Universe is initially collapsing, the energy density coming from a scalar field with a negative exponential potential. It has been supposed that the vacuum fluctuation of this field is amplified, to become a classical perturbation which is the origin of structure. Existing calculations ignoring the metric perturbation seem to confirm this idea, finding moreover a flat spectrum in agreement with observation. It is shown here that with the metric perturbation included, the quantum fluctuation is not amplified and cannot be the origin of structure. In the limit of zero potential the ekpyrotic Universe corresponds to the pre-big-bang Universe, for which the above result is already known.

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